- Shutdown theater coda: DC pols release final measures to avert fake shutdown
Source: CBS News
“Leaders in Congress released the final four measures to fund the government Tuesday, as lawmakers race to avoid another government shutdown at the end of the month. Congress has until Jan. 30 to fund the remaining government agencies and programs, after approving a three-bill funding package as part of the effort to end the longest government shutdown in history in November, while the majority of government funding was extended on a temporary basis. … House and Senate appropriators released the text of the final package of four bills, known as a ‘minibus,’ Tuesday. The legislation would provide funding related to the departments of Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Homeland Security.” (01/20/26)
- Netflix revises its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery to make it an all-cash transaction
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Netflix is revising its $72 billion offer for Warner Bros. Discovery to make it an all-cash transaction. Netflix initially put forth a cash and stock deal valued at $27.75 per Warner Bros. share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt. Netflix and Warner Bros. said Tuesday that the revised deal simplifies the transaction structure, provides more certainty of value for Warner Bros. stockholders and speeds up the path to a Warner Bros. shareholder vote. The companies said that the all-cash transaction is still valued at $27.75 per Warner Bros. share. … Netflix has been in a tussle with Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros., with Paramount taking another step in its hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. last week, saying that it would name its own slate of directors before the next shareholder meeting of the Hollywood studio.” (01/20/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/20/netflix-all-cash-warner-bros/
- Netherlands: Lawmakers Quit Wilders’s Faction in Threat to Leadership
Source: US News & World Report
“Seven members of the Netherlands’ far-right Freedom Party led by Geert Wilders have split from the party’s 26-member faction in parliament and will form their own group, citing dissatisfaction with his leadership, Wilders and the lawmakers said on Tuesday. The split is the most serious challenge to Wilders'[s] control over his party since its foundation in 2006. Wilders told reporters in The Hague that the seven ‘thought Freedom should be more constructive and work together with the new governing coalition instead of conducting hard opposition.’ ‘We’re not planning to do that.’ He said his party would survive the crisis. The split comes as the centrist, pro-EU D66 party, which won the election last October, is in talks to form a minority government in coalition with the conservative Christian Democrats and the right-wing VVD.” (01/20/26)
- UK: Regime defends Chagos deal after Trump calls it “act of great stupidity”
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The UK government has defended a deal to give the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back a key military base, following criticism from US President Donald Trump over its handling. In a post on social media, Trump labelled the move as ‘an act of great stupidity’ and ‘total weakness,’ months after he and senior US officials endorsed it. In response, the UK government said it would ‘never compromise on our national security,’ while the prime minister’s official spokesperson insisted the US still supported the move.” (01/20/25)
- Australia: Parliament passes victim disarmament laws, debates censorship bill
Source: ABC News
“Australia’s Parliament on Tuesday passed new gun restrictions and began debating draft anti-hate speech laws proposed after two shooters killed 15 people at a Jewish festival in Sydney last month in an attack that authorities say was inspired by the Islamic State group. The gun laws create new restrictions on gun ownership and create a government-funded buyback program to compensate people forced to hand in their firearms. Anti-hate speech laws would enable hate groups that don’t fit Australia’s definition of a terrorist organization, such as Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, to be outlawed.” (01/20/26)
- Russia: Moscow Court Throws Out Prosecutors’ Bid to Seize US Fund’s Assets
Source: US News & World Report
“A Moscow court dismissed on Tuesday a motion by prosecutors to seize the assets of U.S. private equity fund NCH Capital in Russia, the Interfax news agency said, as Russian and U.S. representatives sat down for talks in the Swiss resort of Davos. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian authorities have confiscated or placed under state management assets worth some $50 billion belonging to foreign and Russian owners, with courts generally backing the state’s claims. Prosecutors filed a lawsuit against NCH Capital and its founders, George Rohr, a U.S. citizen, and Moris Tabacinic, an Austrian citizen, seeking to ban NCH’s activities in Russia on the grounds that the founders funded Ukraine’s military forces. … Interfax said the judge ruled the court would not hear the case and revoked the previously ordered interim measures. The agency did not provide further details.” (01/20/26)
- CA: Fire reported at building housing Rad Power Bikes retail store warehouse
Source: electrek
“In yet another unfortunate setback for Rad Power Bikes, a structure fire has been reported at the company’s Huntington Beach retail store. Rad Power Bikes once held the position as the top-selling electric bike retailer in the US, but has been struggling for some time and recently declared bankruptcy while it works to keep the company afloat. … While Rad Power Bikes has not yet confirmed a fire at its facility, the news is increasingly troubling, given that the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued an unprecedented safety warning about fire risks associated with some of Rad Power Bikes’ batteries – a charge the e-bike company strongly denies.” (01/20/26)
- UK : Regime approves plans for Chinese mega-embassy
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The UK has approved China’s plans for a huge new embassy in central London, despite opponents warning it could be used as a base for spying and pose security risks. Security Minister Dan Jarvis said intelligence agencies had been ‘integral’ to the process and he was ‘content any risks are being appropriately managed.’ The decision, which has repeatedly been delayed, had posed a challenge for the government, as it seeks to balance its desire for closer ties with Beijing with warnings of the threat posed by China. It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is expected to visit Beijing early this year, becoming the first UK prime minister to do so since 2018.” (01/20/25)
- If You Own Nothing, the Real Owners Don’t Have to Care Whether You’re Happy
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“In my opinion, if I pay to own something, I’ve paid to own all the things it can do … assuming I can figure out how to make it do those things. The manufacturers of ”owned,’ but with subscription-only features’ goods, though, frown on homebrew tinkerers jail-breaking those products instead of forking over cash in perpetuity. And they’ve got ‘intellectual property’ law on their side. They don’t have to care about your happiness.” (01/20/26)
- Conservatives Don’t Believe in Free Markets
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Patrick Carroll“One of the positions that conservatives pride themselves on most is their dedication to free markets. They extol the virtues of the free market in pamphlets and speeches, and they regularly denounce the idea of government control. … Certainly, American conservatism has long been defined by the rhetoric of free markets. But a quick glance at conservative policy positions is all that is needed to call the sincerity of this rhetoric into question. Indeed, the policies conservatives advocate very often go against the free-market principles that they claim to hold. Perhaps the most glaring example of this contradiction is the conservative position on free trade.” (01/20/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/conservatives-dont-believe-in-free-markets
- I’m Dying of ALS. Knowing I Can Decide When To End My Life Brought Me Back From the Dead.
Source: Reason
by Jeremy Boal“One Friday morning in September 2023, my neurologist told me she suspected that I had ALS. I was completely healthy — or so I thought — and in the prime of my life. I had two adult children, a great career, and a wonderful marriage. I was 56, and both of my parents were still alive. My diagnosis was confirmed two months later. I felt as if I had just been told not only that I would die, but that I would be tortured to death, and that it would drag out over several years. … About a year after my diagnosis, joy returned to my life thanks to the support of my family and friends, therapy, antidepressants, and a daily meditation practice. But the most important factor in my emotional recovery was gaining the knowledge that I can make the decision to end my own life when my suffering becomes unbearable.” (01/20/26)
- The Price of Greenland — and the Cost of Attacking Sovereignty
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle“Supporters of the acquisition often cite estimates suggesting Greenland holds between roughly $2 trillion and $4 trillion in natural resources, including rare earth elements, hydrocarbons, and other critical minerals. At the same time, media reports and policy commentary have floated a hypothetical purchase price in the range of approximately $500 billion to $800 billion. Taken together, these two claims reveal a glaring contradiction. Natural resources are not cash balances. They represent long-dated option value: future streams of potential revenue that may or may not be realized depending on extraction costs, infrastructure investment, environmental constraints, political consent, and commodity prices. … Even setting aside valuation, the Greenland proposal fails a more basic test: symmetry. If historical ties, strategic relevance, and latent economic value were sufficient grounds for territorial acquisition, then several European powers could assert claims to US territory with equal legitimacy.” (01/20/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-price-of-greenland-and-the-cost-of-attacking-sovereignty/
- Cops showing up at your door for political Facebook posts is absolutely intolerable in a free society
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by staff“This video is making the rounds — and it’s one every American should see. The video shows law enforcement showing up on the doorstep of Florida resident Raquel Pacheco. What did she do? She criticized the mayor on Facebook. Police coming to our doorsteps for lawful political speech — speech that doesn’t remotely rise to the level of incitement, harassment, or a true threat — is absolutely intolerable in a free society.” (01/20/26)
- Trump’s Foreign Policy, the Comic-Book Edition
Source: TomDispatch
by Alfred McCoy“Writers often try to gild their tawdry times or dignify their flawed leaders with lofty literary analogies — notably, America as the New Jerusalem; Lincoln as Moses leading his people through the wilderness of the Civil War; the Kennedy White House as an incarnation of King Arthur’s ‘Camelot,’ or Lyndon Johnson living his last years as a latter-day King Lear, cast off by his ungrateful children into the moors of south Texas. But what are we going to do with Donald Trump? Wouldn’t his vanity, his vulgarity, and his relentless pursuit of money and minerals in every corner of the globe turn any literary analogies into soggy clichés? Like the showman P.T. Barnum, Trump is an American original, whose true metaphors can be found only in comic books (America’s one true art form), not literature.” (01/20/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/trumps-foreign-policy-the-comic-book-edition/
- Inequality, Surveillance and the Cashless Society
Source: CounterPunch
by Binoy Kampmark“Like all new frontiers touted as necessary and worthwhile, the cashless society is advertised as a supremely convenient way to facilitate financial transactions while avoiding such silly inconveniences as carrying cash and scouting for a money dispenser. A cashless society also facilitates inequality, manifests a pattern of conduct easily monitored by both private companies and State agencies, and repudiates the notion of valid tender. It also subordinates its users to a digital ecosystem that can, at any given moment, fail.” (01/20/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/20/inequality-surveillance-and-the-cashless-society/
- Agnostics Of Every Faith But One
Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman“Believers don’t have to either deny or affirm the verity of other religions.” (01/20/26)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/agnostics-of-every-faith-but-one
- Everyone Hates Israel Now Because Our Own Institutions Made It Personal
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Everyone hates Israel now, and what’s funny is this wouldn’t have happened if our society had been the tiniest bit normal about Gaza. If everyone wasn’t constantly being forcefully told they’re not seeing what they’re seeing, it wouldn’t have become so personal for them. If western governments had just said ‘this is bad’ when news came out about Israel bombing a hospital instead of ‘THIS ISN’T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE THERE’S A HAMAS BASE IN EVERY HEALTHCARE FACILITY YOU ARE BEING ANTISEMITIC.’ If the news media had just said ‘this is bad’ when Israel systematically exterminated journalists in Gaza instead of reporting ‘three killed in what IDF describes as strike on terrorist vehicle’ over and over again.” (01/21/25)
- A Left Defense of Pure Tolerance
Source: Isonomia Quarterly
by Chip Poirot“The assassination of Charlie Kirk (conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA) and its aftermath has led to a surge in public discussion about the nature and limits of free speech. The Trump administration, citing threats from Anti-Fa, designated it as a terrorist organization and in the process, also took aim at speech that is constitutionally protected. One late night TV host, Jimmy Kimmel, was temporarily fired due to pressure from the FCC and then reinstated. Whether the Trump administration represents a singular threat to the First Amendment, or whether ‘the left’ or ‘right’ is the larger threat to free speech are arguable points, but not ones that I will attempt to settle in this essay. Instead, in this essay I aim to make a left-wing case for pure tolerance, or in other words, of the necessity and practicality of tolerating speech by those viewed as intolerant.” (01/20/26)
https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-3-issue-4/a-left-defense-of-pure-tolerance/
- Throw the Book at Corrupt Democrats, in Minnesota and Everywhere Else
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“You probably haven’t thought about Don Lemon in, well, ever. Why would you? No one watched him when he was on CNN, which is a big part of the reason he’s no longer on CNN, and he’s only doubled down on everything people found annoying about him when he was easy to find. And the only time you’re likely to have thought about Ilhan Omar is when she’s doing something racist, stupid or both – which is a lot, actually. … Some people live lives of example, others are destined to be a cautionary tale. Make all these leftists into examples that serve as warnings to others that lawlessness will not be tolerated.” (01/20/25)
- Free Speech, Religious Offense, and a Transatlantic Divide
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Mark Movesesian“One of the most difficult areas in church–state law involves the conflict between freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In the United States, at least at the level of basic principle, that conflict has been largely resolved for decades. Ever since Cantwell v. Connecticut, we have accepted that people don’t have a right to be free from criticism — or even offense — directed at their religious beliefs. Speakers may criticize religion, ridicule religious doctrines, and even confront believers directly, so long as they respect ordinary time, place, and manner restrictions and do not incite imminent violence. In other words, in American constitutional law, freedom of speech generally trumps claims that religious sensibilities have been wounded. The First Amendment does not contain a right not to be insulted. The situation in Europe is more complicated.” (01/20/26)
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/01/20/free-speech-religious-offense-and-a-transatlantic-divide/
- Ending GOP Authoritarianism Will Require Overcoming the Democratic Leadership
Source: Common Dreams
by Norman Solomon“The past year has completely discredited any claim that choosing between the Democratic and Republican parties would be merely a matter of ‘pick your poison’ with the same end result. In countless terrible ways, the last 12 months have shown that Donald Trump’s party is bent on methodically inflicting vast cruelty and injustice while aiming to crush what’s left of democracy and the rule of law. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s leadership persists with the kind of elitist political approach that helped Trump win in 2024. Hidebound and unimaginative, Senate leader Chuck Schumer and House leader Hakeem Jeffries have been incapable of inspiring the people whose high-turnout votes will be essential to ending Republican control of Congress and the White House.” (01/20/25)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/corporate-democrats-trump
- China’s Debt Problem — And Our Own
Source: Law & Liberty
by Corbin K Barthold“The United States and China are the world’s two great powers. The US boasts the largest economy, the global reserve currency, the leading AI firms, and a military with unmatched worldwide reach. China has the globe’s second-largest economy (far ahead of third-place Germany); commanding positions in key fields such as drones, batteries, and rare earths; an increasingly formidable navy; and, by virtue of its export dominance, substantial leverage over global trade. Cold War II is taking shape. Or is it? Dig deeper, and both nations start to look like surprisingly fragile societies drifting slowly but steadily toward disaster.” (01/20/26)
- We’re Losing the Human Touch in Food
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joel Salatin“Food, which generally originates with a farmer, gardener, or orchardist, is fast losing its hands-on persona and increasingly gaining a mechanical, chemical platform. Over the last decade, the United States has lost about 28,000 farms annually. While some of the loss is due to urbanization, most of the land remains farmland, either managed by other farmers or simply abandoned. While there are 1.3 million farmers over age 65, only 300,000 are 35 or younger. In 2022, the average American farmer was 58—years older than the average age in other vibrant economic sectors. The American business landscape is largely anti-people. The current rush to artificial intelligence reflects how eagerly most businesses seek to eliminate people. The farming sector illustrates this trend better than most.” (01/20/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/were-losing-the-human-touch-in-food/
- Will Maria Corina Machado Return to Venezuela?
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“Will Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado return to her country, as she has vowed? If so, how exactly would she do that? Does she sneak into the country and remain hidden, as she has done ever since the Chavista regime began arresting and brutalizing protestors after the country’s 2024 presidential election? Or does she get on a plane and fly publicly into the country and live openly without fear of being arrested by the Chavista regime to face pending criminal charges against her? It seems to me that given the position of servile subserviency into which she has placed herself with respect to her relationship with President Trump, she would almost certainly feel compelled to ask his permission to return to her home country.” (01/20/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/01/20/will-maria-corina-machado-return-to-venezuela/
- Trump’s first year: The good, the great and the foolish
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek“Donald J. Trump was inaugurated for a second term as president exactly one year ago. It is safe to say the country, and the world, will never be the same. President Trump has engaged in energetic and bold governing and diplomacy, fulfilling campaign promises like boosting domestic energy production, while also seeking peace in turbulent parts of the world and attempting to follow through on long-term ambitions, like acquiring Greenland. He has engaged with the press on a near-daily basis, boosted recruitment for our military, dismantled harmful left-wing shibboleths like DEI, convinced our NATO allies to spend more on their own defense, junked burdensome regulations that interfered with our country’s progress …. It is an incredible boatload of accomplishments.” [editor’s note: Well, until you delete the parts that are made-up bullshit. Then it’s not quite so incredible – TLK] (01/20/25)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-trumps-first-year-good-great-foolish
- Trump Exhaustion Syndrome
Source: The Atlantic
by Ashley Parker“A year into Trump’s second term, the emboldened president’s maximalist strategy — pushing every norm to its most elastic, and then a bit beyond, and from that new breaking point pushing yet again — conjures the boiling-frog theory, in which a frog placed in boiling water will immediately hop out, but a frog placed in cool water that is slowly heated will complacently boil to death. (And yes, I know that this amphibious metaphor for failing to notice incremental negative changes is apocryphal, but the lesson is still apt.) Or, as the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon put it to me, the Overton window is moving so far, so quickly, that the more apt way to understand Trump’s strategy is: ‘Fuck the Overton window.'” (01/20/26)
- Will NATO survive Trump?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jennifer Kavanagh“The integrity of the 76-year-old alliance appears in the balance here, but the row over Greenland is a symptom, not the cause. Today, NATO faces a deep and existential challenge: a fundamental divide between the United States and the alliance’s European members over the type and extent of the threat posed by Russia. Ultimately, it is this fracture — and not the outcome of the current territorial dispute — that will be the alliance’s undoing.” (01/20/26)
- The Vital Center, 01/20/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Reevaluating the New Liberals, with Henry Tonks.” (01/20/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/reevaluating-the-new-liberals-with-henry-tonks
- The Libertarian Angle, 01/20/26
- Rising, 01/20/26
Source: The Hill
“Kara Swisher whines about tech billionaires escaping California tax: Robby Soave.” (01/20/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5696602-rising-january-20-2026/
- The Good Fight, 01/20/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Damon Linker on Why Trump 2.0 Is More Destructive Than Anyone Expected.” (01/20/26)
- Law & Liberty Podcast, 01/20/26
Source: Law & Liberty
“Living the Unadjusted Life.” (01/20/26)
- Uncanny Valley, 01/20/26
Source: Wired
“Jimmy Wales Will Never Edit Donald Trump’s Wikipedia Page: He ‘Makes Me Insane.’” (01/20/26)
https://www.wired.com/story/the-big-interview-podcast-jimmy-wales/
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 01/20/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for our weekly visit. We do our best to make sense of the growing madness and how to find peace in a time of truth deficiency.” (01/20/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 01/20/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Rage at Protesters Boils Over as ICE Scandal Takes Worse Turn.” (01/20/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/205411/trump-rage-protests-boils-ice-scandal-takes-worse-turn
- SolutionsWatch, 01/20/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“Mutual Aid.” (01/20/26)